[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/radiant_4532.jpg]]->''If you could rewrite history ...\\... What would you do differently?''

In the world of Vainqueur, a land of men and beastmen, the theocratic nation Alistel is in a state of war with the fascist monarchy of Granorg. Vainqueur's land is slowly dying alongside its people, as an unusual disease known as the "Sand Plague" turns its citizens into sand. The ruler of Alistel directly blames this disease on the queen of Granorg, Protea, meaning they are justified in a holy war.

Enter our hero, Stocke, an Alistel spy. He is sent into Granorg territory alongside new teammates Raynie and Marco to rescue another spy who was captured. Unfortunately, the lot of them find themselves surrounded; the spy, Raynie, and Marco bite the dust; and Stocke is heavily wounded. He finds himself in Historia, a world between time and space. It is there that a pair of children give him the ability to travel through time, space, and the timelines, telling him that the world needs his new power. Going back and rescuing his team from their fate, Stocke must now cross between two timelines -- one where he remains a spy, one where he joins his friend Rosch in the army -- to guide history down the "[[GoldenPath razor-thin path]]" that leads to salvation.

A DS RPG by a dream team made up of members of the ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', ''VideoGame/RadiataStories'', and ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' development teams, with music by Creator/YokoShimomura. Released in North America on Feb 22nd, 2011. Not to be confused with ''VideoGame/RadiataStories'', of course, or ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun''.

----!!This game provides examples of:

* ThreeQuartersView* TwentyFourHourArmor: Rosch in particular.* AbandonedLaboratory: Par for the course in a game like this.* AbilityRequiredToProceed** Once you learn to blow up rocks, you will have to use it all the time.** Who in their right mind would take a barrel of gunpowder, make it ''invisible'', and then leave it sitting around in the middle of nowhere?* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Also par for the course.* AbusiveParents: Between the OffingTheOffspring, Protea's habit of locking Eruca in her room as often as possible, and [[spoiler:Heiss, who is essentially Stocke's foster father, putting him through everything up to and including MindRape in a well-intentioned but deeply messed-up attempt to control him]], the Granorg royal family seems to have had some... ''problems'' in this regard.* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Stocke keeping his levels and items between timelines is justified by [[SanDimasTime his personal timeline remaining unchanged]]. The same cannot be said of his party members, but they keep their levels and skills regardless. As Magazine/NintendoPower put it: "[[RuleOfFun Just think about how much it would suck if they didn't.]]"* ActuallyFourMooks: Up to 7, actually.* AerithAndBob* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Heiss, in his capacity as BigBad and Final Boss]], gets one of these moments during the ending, and it's made even stronger in the GoldenEnding, in which [[spoiler:he decides to become the Sacrifice himself so Stocke won't need to die]].* AllSwordsAreTheSame: Both Stocke and Marco can wield swords, and despite the fact they are clearly two completely different types of swords (a longsword and a short one-handed blade), they both can equip any and all types of swords. Slightly subverted in one of the sidequests that involves finding a replacement sand sword for a character whose fighting style revolves around them, making him unable to use normal swords due to his preferred kind of sword's unique shape.* AllThereInTheManual: There are a fair number of details that are only mentioned in the artbook, including characters' ages (mostly [[ImprobableAge absurdly young]]), the BigBad's real name ([[spoiler:Heinrich]]), and [[spoiler:[[BreadEggsMilkSquick the fact that the mana breach and desertification are caused by an all-devouring eldritch horror created when a wielder of the Black Chronicle lost control of it]], [[SealedEvilInACan which is sealed in Historia]]]].* AlternateHistory: Stocke's decision at the beginning of the game to either stay in Specint or leave to join a brigade led by Rosch leads to two alternate histories.* AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair: Especially since some treasure chests are invisible.* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: [[spoiler:This is actually the motivation of the BigBad; if saving the life of the one person he cares about means dooming the world to desertification, that's a price he's willing to pay.]]* AmbidextrousSprite: Mostly played straight (especially with portraits) except for one aversion: Rosch's left-facing and right-facing map sprites both have his Gauntlet as his left arm.* AnimeThemeSong: Haruka Shimotsuki on [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cL8FFzYIzE -HISTORIA-]] during the end credits.* ApatheticCitizens: The people of Alistel are remarkably chill considering what's going on around them due to their blind faith in the Prophet Noah.* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Three characters can fight at a time.* ArtificialLimbs: They're known as Gauntlets. Rosch has one.* AssassinOutclassin: In an unlockable ending scene, some unidentified assassin tries to kill [[spoiler:Eruca]]. However, the target uses [[spoiler:the Vanish technique]] they learned from [[spoiler:Stocke]] to take out the assassin.* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: King Garland, who united his country by beating up the other factions.* AwesomeButImpractical: Mana Crystals. The ability to fully heal mid-dungeon seems useful, but it costs a hundred times more than staying at an inn, which has the same effect. Plus, you need a save point to use them, so it might be more efficient to just time-travel to before you entered the dungeon and go rest at an inn there.* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Averted: [[spoiler:Eruca becomes Queen with no fanfare at all]].* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: [[spoiler:The bad ending to [[RomanceSidequest "At Journey's End."]] A popular bad end because it's the only way to see Raynie give Stocke TheGlomp, and reveal their affection for each other, which not even the GoldenEnding does.]]* AntidoteEffect: Lots of it. Though since most end-game enemies can either drain MP or block Item and Skill use, it's always handy to have some extra healing items and a healer on the ready.* {{Backtracking}}: Loads and loads and loads of it. The whole point of the game, really.* BabiesEverAfter: [[spoiler:Sonja and Liese are pregnant in the ending if their respective sidequests are cleared.]]* BattleCouple: [[spoiler:Stocke and Raynie.]]* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Stocke is only capable of changing certain decisions he makes. So, his inability to prevent [[spoiler:the destruction of the Rosch Brigade and the necessity of Kiel's sacrifice]] is understandably infuriating to both him and the player.** [[spoiler:They get better in the GoldenEnding, having been rescued by a mysterious man in red whose name they can't quite remember, {{foreshadowing}} the final reveal that Stocke ''didn't'' [[HeroicSacrifice give his life in the Ritual]]: [[BigBad Heiss]] had a [[HeelFaceTurn change of heart]] instead.]]* BewareTheNiceOnes** Make the wrong choice during [[spoiler:Marco's]] sidequest, and you'll get a bad ending where he snaps and kills the entire party (except Stocke, because Stocke's gotta learn from this experience somehow).** Another bad ending: [[spoiler:make the wrong choice during ''Aht's'' sidequest, and she winds up using her shaman powers to trap Stocke in an illusory world so [[{{Yandere}} she can be with him forever]].]]* BigBadEnsemble: Queen Protea for the Standard History, [[spoiler:General Hugo]] in the Alternate History, and [[spoiler:Heiss]] for the overall plot.* {{Bishonen}}: Stocke, Dias, and Selvan. It's implied Dias and Selvan got their jobs ''because'' of their looks.* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Unless you clear the 10 specific sidequests required for the best ending, that is. Even then, it's somewhat bittersweet.]] Some of the premature endings should also qualify.* BlockPuzzle: A particularly time-consuming one in the final dungeon, mostly because of lots of forced battles (both the blocks themselves and on the paths they need to be pushed through, latter of which respawn every time you fight a block but can thankfully be run away from) and the fact that it resets if you backtrack to save (instead of just pushing on to the next savepoint, which is also a node), unlike most other puzzles.* BlueAndOrangeMorality: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]]. The Beastmen loudly insist that it applies to them. For the most part they come across as simply resentful of the humans' history of exploiting them, and one side-quest involves [[InterspeciesRomance bridging]] the [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch gap]]. On the other hand, when one of the bad endings involves a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Gutral]] character becoming a [[HumanoidAbomination mindless avatar of destruction]] and beating the game's other impending apocalypses to the punch, there is no indication that his race regards the transformation as anything but a ''legitimate religious experience''.* BonusBoss: The Master and the Mist Spider.* BookcasePassage: The entrance to the Royal Hall.* BoringButPractical: Despite all the cool higher-level [[LimitBreak Mana Burst]] abilities, the first one you get, Turn Break, is often the most useful. All party members can use it and it removes an enemy's turn, making it easier to string together massive combos or buying you some breathing room to heal.* BossRush: Near the end, to unseal a door, you have to fight four bosses in a row. At least you can do whatever between fights, and the ones you defeat don't have to be refought.* BottomlessMagazines: Eruca's guns somehow work without bullets. Justified in that they're ''magic'' guns.** And yes, [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall we do know where she purchased them.]]* ButterflyOfDoom: Many of the bad endings.* ButThouMust: Countless times you will need to choose between two options. Invariably, one of them leads to a NonStandardGameOver and the other choice allows the story to proceed. If you guess wrong, time is reset and you have an opportunity to make the choice again.** Zig-Zagged in the very first choice of the game (joining Rosch's Brigade): you can choose either option, but you'll continuously encounter roadblocks that will require you to visit the other timeline.* BystanderSyndrome** Most of the world is shockingly blase about the fact that the world is turning into sand; they're most concerned with winning the war.** And, in the sidequest with Mimel, the bar patrons don't seem to notice the fact that [[spoiler:someone just got ''turned to sand'']] right in the middle of the room.* CantCatchUp: Due to the strange way LeakedExperience is handled, there's a couple of characters this can potentially happen to. Rosch drops in and out of the party so often that by the time he [[spoiler:gets over his HeroicBSOD]], he'll probably be about 15 levels below everyone else, and can easily stay underleveled the entire game. On the other side of things, Eruca gets kicked out of the party for plot reasons for the entire last ''three'' dungeons, so unless you turn around right before the final boss fight to go LevelGrinding, she's going to be at a significantly lower level than the rest of the party.* CantDropTheHero: [[TheAce Not that]] [[LightningBruiser you'd usually]] ''[[MagicKnight want]]'' [[MagicKnight to]].* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: Inverted in the Alternate History. Rosch, the captain, is very outwardly tough, hands-on, and prone to good-naturedly terrorizing his soldiers, while Stocke, the sergeant, is quiet, reserved, surprisingly kind, and well-known to be [[TheAce far and away the most dangerous person in the brigade]].* CardiovascularLove: A handful of characters make a HeartSymbol appear when they're around someone they like.* CharacterPortrait: Present but static.* ChainmailBikini: Raynie wears a strangely-cut dress with a low neckline and some small piece of armor to protect her neck, with some unprotected skin in between.* ChekhovMIA** Prince Ernst has been dead for several years, but since the game keeps bringing him up, you ''[[LawOfConservationOfDetail know]]'' he's gotta be important. Especially about halfway through the game, when it's revealed that [[spoiler:Stocke looks so much like him it's making Eruca uncomfortable]]. Sure enough, he is: [[spoiler:Stocke ''is'' Ernst, BackFromTheDead and with his memories erased.]]** There is ''one line'' that establishes that [[spoiler:the previous sacrifice for the ritual]]'s location is unknown, and this is likely to go unnoticed due to the much bigger revelation in that same line that [[spoiler:the ritual ''requires'' a sacrifice]]. Guess who the ultimate BigBad is?* CherryTapping: Aht's Dancing Death skill [[BladeSpam hits seven times]], and due to her abysmal Attack stat most of them will hit for 1 damage. But it's fantastic for raising your combo level, and when facing one of the handful of enemies with [[NoSell invulnerability skills]] can completely negate all shields in one turn, since each shield level blocks one hit, regardless of damage.* TheChessmaster: Heiss and Stocke. Understandable, since the one is a master spy and the other is his protégé.** Dias and Selvan to a degree, though they're not as good at it as Heiss and Stocke keeps [[SpannerInTheWorks ruining everything]].* ChessmasterSidekick: Stocke to Rosch in the Alternate History timeline.* ChessMotifs: Chess pieces can be worn as stat boosting accessories. Pawn is the first and King is the best.** Also, the Black and White Chronicles can be seen as opposing chess masters, trying to outmaneuver the other.* AChildShallLeadThem: Eruca to the Resistance [[spoiler:and later Granorg in both timelines]], and Aht, who, as a shaman, acts as the spiritual leader of Celestia.* ChildMage: Aht at 9 years old. Marco to an extent, since he ''looks'' small and childlike but is actually 17 years old.* ChildSoldiers: Raynie and Marco are both 17 and have been mercenaries for years.* ChokepointGeography: For some reason, you can't get anywhere in the game without passing through Lazvil Hills and/or Gran Plain.* ChromaticArrangement: Stocke wears red, Raynie wears blue, and Marco wears green.* CityGuards: All over the place.* ClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:Rosch]] in the Alternate Timeline, when Stocke tries to convince him [[spoiler:he's still got the strength to fight.]] He hits like a truck, too.* CoDragons: Selvan and Dias to Protea.* CombatMedic: Marco and Aht's skillsets. Then again, Aht can dish out so much damage that using her as a medic is usually a waste... Except if you're fighting [[StationaryBoss something too large to knock into her traps]].* {{Combos}}: A major part of the battle system.* CompetenceZone: Despite their looks, the playable characters are actually very young. Rosch is only 21 (which is old by RPG standards).* ContractualBossImmunity: Averted. Many bosses ''are'' vulnerable to things like Poison and Sleep.* CopyProtection: You'll be allowed to save, and your file won't get deleted, but a new game will start when you hit "Continue" at the title screen, so you won't be able to actually access your save file.* CrapsackWorld: You either have the organized, religiously-motivated, puppet-government in Alistel, the vapid and corrupt government of Granorg, or the democratic and free, but dangerous and outlaw nation of Cygnus. There are other small towns, but they're rather unfriendly towards humans (check the Fantastic Racism trope below).* CustomUniform: Kiel wears something other than standard armor for some reason.* CutsceneBoss: [[spoiler:High Colonel Dias.]]* DangerousDeserter: [[spoiler:King Garland's consultant, Hedge.]]* DarkestHour: The beginning of chapter 3 in the alternate timeline, fittingly called "Despair". [[spoiler:Kiel, Raynie and Marco weren't seen again after the battle, Stocke was deemed a traitor and had to flee, Heiss turned against him, and Rosch lost his will to fight along with his mechanical arm.]]* DarkIsNotEvil: The Black Chronicle has the same powers [[spoiler:and is intended for the same purpose]] as the White Chronicle.* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:A prerequisite for Sacrifices- namely, Stocke and Heiss.]] A variation of this applies to [[spoiler:the Prophet Noah]].* DefeatMeansFriendship: [[spoiler:King Garland]] insists on testing your strength when you first meet him.* DefendCommand* {{Deuteragonist}}: Alongside Stocke, each timeline has one character who gets major focus: [[spoiler:Eruca]] in the standard history (spoilered because this character is initially thought to be an antagonist) and Rosch in the alternate history. These characters also don't join in their opposite histories until far later in the game.* DevourTheDragon: [[spoiler:Heiss offers to make Selvan and Dias "a part of something great" -- i.e., himself.]]* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: While there's plenty of minor examples, one of them stands out due to it being pretty obscure: if you choose to view the BadEnding where [[spoiler:Rosch assassinates Marco and Eruca and is mortally wounded]] for the second time after seeing the event where [[spoiler:Stocke slaps some sense into him to cure him of his LawfulStupid tendencies and finds Sonja the necessary items to repair his Gauntlet in the other timeline, the reason for their deaths is changed from Rosch assassinating them to Eruca and Marco not knowing he had changed sides and not giving him a chance to explain himself and Rosch having to kill them in self-defense.]]** Another even more obscure one: if you find and disarm the bombs in the Sand Fortress without actually seeing the cutscene where they go off, Stocke's dialogue changes so instead of counting down how many are left, he wonders what the hell a bomb was doing there.* DiabolusExMachina: While some of the bad end triggers are rather obvious (attacking a soldier during an undercover mission, sending troops into an obvious trap, [[spoiler:[[IdiotBall accepting Hugo's offer of power]]]]), quite a few of them will blindside you due to being triggered by decisions that actually make the most sense in their situation, or [[ButterflyOfDoom seem trivial]].** "The Queen Ascendant" ending is triggered by [[spoiler:actually investigating the mine ''a missing messenger was last seen at'']].** "The Princess' Charge" is another bad ending that seems far too sudden considering the events surrounding it: Eruca wants to be able to do more to help her people, and Stocke tells her not to push herself too hard trying to fulfill her role. She takes this to mean [[spoiler:she should completely renounce her title and start [[CivilWar an open rebellion]], and is killed in the ensuing fighting]].* DiscOneNuke: It's possible to get Stocke's best armor as early as SH Chapter 4 by abusing StandardStatusEffects to defeat two endgame {{Bonus Boss}}es.* DracoInLeatherPants: An in-universe example: the Dias fangirls in Granorg refuse to believe he might be a villain because he is [[{{Bishonen}} just that pretty]].* DressingAsTheEnemy: [[spoiler:Stocke, Raynie, and Marco pull this to free some captured Gutrals.]]* DoomsdayDevice: A particularly horrible one.* DualWielding: Aht, Pierre, and Otto (daggers); Will and Viola (swords); and Eruca (guns).* DualWorldGameplay: There are two timelines that you have to swap back and forth between to progress in the game.* DualBoss: The Desert Crows, Palomides the Executioner [[spoiler:when Stocke fights him properly]].* DuelBoss: [[spoiler:Heiss, Eli's gladiator, King Garland, and Rosch (twice)]]. In the optional category, you have Gafka vs. Bergas (x4!).* DysfunctionJunction: Stocke, as the bearer of the Chronicle, is subjected to all the horrors of both timelines, both naturally and in the various "bad ends", Rosch [[spoiler:sees his entire brigade slaughtered to the man, loses an arm]], and his loyalty to his country dangerously borders on fanaticism [[spoiler:to the point that he betrays Stocke and attempts to murder Eruca]]. Eruca is forced to fight against her own stepmother as Protea's ever-increasing madness sends her kingdom ever further down the drain, plus having to cope with [[spoiler:working with someone who's basically a stranger in her brother's body]]. Raynie and Marco both have SurvivorsGuilt from when the rest of their mercenary company was wiped out, plus Raynie [[spoiler:lost her entire family at a young age, forcing her into becoming a freelance mercenary just to survive]] and Marco [[spoiler:is ForcedToWatch as his crush is brutally murdered ''right in front of him'']]. And that's not even getting into the bad endings, like when [[spoiler:Marco turns into a murderous psychopath, Aht goes completely {{Yandere}}, or Gafka becomes an inhuman monster that the entire ''world'' has to team up to take down]].* EarnYourHappyEnding* EasilyForgiven: Everyone is pretty quick to forgive King Garland (and Cygnus as a whole) for that whole slavery thing.* ElCidPloy: [[spoiler:The Prophet Noah died years ago. All of his "proclamations" since then were fabricated by General Hugo]].* EldritchLocation: Historia and Granorg's Royal Hall.* EndgamePlus: Defeating the FinalBoss returns you to your last save with the chance to do quests you forgot to do/complete. The best part? Any items you used during that fight are returned to you!* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Desertification.* EnemyMine: Deconstructed. Choosing to ally with [[spoiler:Granorg]] to defeat [[spoiler:Alistel after Hugo takes over]] results in a Bad Ending where they turn on you afterwards.* EnemySummoner: Several of them, ranging from soldiers to mushrooms.* EquipmentSpoiler: Gee, I wonder why all these shops are selling guns?* ErmineCapeEffect: Protea brings up this trope when Eruca argues that the court should cut back for the benefit of the citizenry.* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses* EvenEvilHasStandards: Dias and Selvan, despite their deceitfulness and ruthlessness, are completely disgusted by some of Queen Protea's worse excesses.-->'''Selvan:''' Mm. If you'll excuse me, I must go [[spoiler:set my own city on fire]].\\'''Dias:''' ...I am sorry.* EvilChancellor: More than one.* EvilMentor: Heiss. The game barely bothers to hide it.* EvilerThanThou: [[spoiler:Protea vs Hugo]]* EvilVersusEvil: [[spoiler:The war between Granorg and Alistel turns out to be this. Queen Protea is a petty, [[ItsAllAboutMe egomaniacal]] tyrant who brutally oppresses and taxes her kingdom purely so she can have more luxuries, has hundreds of innocent people murdered on flimsy charges, and at one point ''sets her own city on fire, killing millions'', just to kill ''one'' rebel. Oh, and her adviser and best general are both manipulating her for their own ends. As for Alistel, Fennel is a MadScientist whose research is questionable at best and downright terrifying at worst, and General Hugo has been using fabricated messages of bigotry and hate, allegedly from the Prophet Noah (who has in fact been dead for years) in order to control the populace, sends thousands of his own men, including literally ''all'' of Rosch's brigade to die on a suicide mission because their leaders are better-liked than him, and transforms Alistel into a horrifically dystopian military dictatorship. Oh, and the chief of intelligence is the game's BigBad.]]* ExponentialPotential: Scrolling through all your skills to pick one every turn (or set of turns) gets annoying.* EyesAlwaysShut: Liese.* FaceHeelTurn: Stocke and Marco go this route in the Bad Endings. [[spoiler:Rosch]] in the unaltered Standard History.* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: No matter which choice you make, [[spoiler:Marco's friend/potential love interest Mimel dies. Poor Marco]].* FantasticRacism: Humans and the Beastkind, in both directions. You help some during the main story, and can do more through your sidequests.* FateWorseThanDeath: One of the bad endings (namely, [[spoiler:"Fleeting Peace"]]).* AFatherToHisMen: Rosch, and also Lt. General Raul.* FetchQuest: Some of the sidequests.* FightingForAHomeland: One of Raynie and Marco's main motivations.* FightingYourFriend: Happens a few times.* FightWoosh* FireForgedFriends: Stocke and Rosch. Raynie and Marco. Later, Stocke, Raynie and Marco. [[spoiler:But [[EveryoneCanSeeIt Marco can tell Raynie wants more.]]]]* FireIceLightning* FirstTown: Alistel, also the Capital.* FisherKing: Alistel propaganda holds that the desertification is due to Queen Protea's tyranny, and that the land will die anytime a corrupt ruler reigns. There actually is some truth to this, as [[spoiler:the desertification is caused by the ruler of Granorg not performing a specific ritual, which Protea is incapable of doing (as it can be only be performed by one of royal blood, and she married into the family) even if she wanted to]]. There's no evidence that the propagandists of Alistel know this, though.* FlunkyBoss: Several.* FogOfWar: A variation. Unexplored areas of the map are completely shrouded in fog so you can't see what might be there.* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the Standard timeline, Eruca dismisses a suggestion to quietly assassinate Protea on the grounds that if she isn't openly removed from power, Selvan and Dias will just claim that she's gone into seclusion and run Granorg however they like in her name. In a later chapter of the Alternate timeline, [[spoiler:it is revealed that the Prophet Noah died (Possibly assassinated, but potentially just from being an old man with health problems) at some point after he had withdrawn from public view five years earlier. General Hugo then decided that since he was the only member of the Alistel High Command who knew this, he could pretend that the prophet was still alive and continue running the country to suit himself in Noah's name]].** If you try to rush the guards when infiltrating Granorg castle before learning the invisiblity technique, you get the "Fated Assassination" bad ending where Marco and Raynie are arrested for the assassination of Eruca. But the narration notes that the date of the princess' death didn't match up with the date your party infiltrated the castle. This won't make sense until much, ''much'' later in the game. [[spoiler:It's a big clue that when the BigBad goes back in time to kill Eruca, the infiltration is ''not'' the node you need to travel to to stop him...]]** On a replay, be prepared to feel stupid for not picking up on the ''vast'' number of hints that [[spoiler:Heiss has the Black Chronicle. There's even a few scenes where you can actually pick out decision points in his timeline]].* ForScience: Fennel -- for thaumatech research! He prioritizes gathering test data on his thaumatech mechs ''very'' highly.-->Ah, data! The beautiful crystals of promise and potential...* ForWantOfANail: The BigBad is running around stealing as many nails as he can; the resulting timeline damage sets off the events of the game. In one timeline, Stocke is a special ops soldier (read: spy). In another, he's a low-ranking (but rapidly-rising) grunt in the military. Due to Historia, he retains the skills of both. He can also use his time jumping to figure out which nails are missing from each timeline (one example given is the realization that a courier who delivered explosives is dead in timeline A, discovered by asking in timeline B, where the explosives arrived on time).%%* FragileSpeedster: Aht. Becomes not-so-fragile after many, many levels and with the right equipment.* GetAholdOfYourselfMan: Stocke beats the hell out of [[spoiler:Rosch]] to snap him out of a HeroicBSOD.* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Quite a few examples.** Early on, Generals Dias and Selvan make a remark about [[{{Shotacon}} Queen Protea attending services to worship the little boys in choir]].** "After he'd spilled his guts, well... he spilled his guts."** "You really know how to handle your sword."** The little girl outside the inn in Granorg promises the party lots of "...amenities."** Between a couple: "Ready to plunge your sword back into the fray?"** The most egregious examples are when Aht is made a barmaid in Cygnus. There are very MANY references to a certain [[SexSlave other]] [[SexTourism service]] while she's there. Oh, and she's 9-years-old.* GiantSpider: My kingdom for a flyswatter.* GladiatorSubquest: Though only some of the fights are mandatory.* AGlassOfChianti: When scheming, Selvan and Dias are usually seen drinking wine together.* GoldenEnding: The "true" ending; all the others are bittersweet at best.* GoldenPath* GoldfishPoopGang: Bram and Hertz, the Desert Crows. One sidequest involves [[spoiler:cheering the leader up after he disbands the group ''due'' to their goldfish poop status]].* {{Gonk}}: Heiss and Fennel.* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: Subverted: [[spoiler:Because of the backstabbing and secret pacts in both timelines, they both eventually become the enemy in both timelines. Considering how messed up both governments are, the choices are more like Zealous Republic Apathetic Empire.]]* GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler:Not all that surprisingly, in Alistel.]]* GratuitousFrench: The names of some of the equipment.** Vainqueur, the continent's name, means "winner" in French.* GratuitousGerman: Mainly some unique weapons, like "Der Lowe" (it should be "Der Löwe" or "Der Loewe" -- "The Lion") or the Freikugel brand of guns. This fits the theme of most Alistellians having German-sounding names.* GreatOffscreenWar: A lot of the war events happen off-screen.* GreyAndGrayMorality: Each of the three factions in the game are neither completely good nor completely evil.* GuideDangIt: Some of the sidequests.** "At Journey's End" in particular requires you to make the correct dialogue choices at three points in time (two of which seem to be "are you prepared for a boss battle?" AntiFrustrationFeatures but actually aren't), in two separate timelines, with the last necessary dialogue choice taking place ''after'' the sidequest begins. And to even initiate the sidequest after all this, you have to go back to a point where you're asked if you're ready for a major assault, say you're ''not'' ready, then talk to one of your teammates in town when you have no reason to. Worse, this sidequest is required for the GoldenEnding. Without prior knowledge to the requirements, it would be near-impossible to trigger and the rationale behind the requirements only becomes clear in hindsight. [[labelnote:spoiler explanation]][[spoiler:These choices affect how Raynie thinks of Stocke. If he doesn't step in to save a then-unknown little girl (Aht) from monsters, this will tinge her opinion of him and she won't fall in love with him. Also, Stocke doing risky stuff out of concern for others makes Raynie herself to grow concerned about him and his well-being. Finally, these decisions also make Marco trust Stocke enough to confide his observation of Raynie's change of behavior with him, which triggers the sidequest]][[/labelnote]]** "What was inherited" involves a mana-absorbing plant and requires you to see both less-than-preferable outcomes before you're allowed to TakeAThirdOption. And it's also required to unlock the GoldenEnding.* GunsAreWorthless: Eruca is a GlassCannon when it comes to magic, but most of her physical attacks are pathetic. Generally speaking, if a skill has her pulling a rifle out of {{Hammerspace}}, it will do decent damage, but otherwise, her guns are indeed pretty worthless.* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: All three ladies are magic focused. Raynie starts off as a MagicKnight, but becomes your LadyOfBlackMagic. Bonus points for Eruca, who uses a gun.* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:Liese is implied to be pregnant with one in the GoldenEnding.]]* HaveWeMetYet: Repeatedly. Nearly everyone gets déjà vu at some point in one of the paths.** The funniest is probably when Aht introduces herself to Stocke in the Alternate History and he offhandedly says, "Yeah, I know."* HeavilyArmoredMook: Several of the army mooks.* HealingHands: Aht, Stocke, and Marco. Eruca and Raynie also have Regen magic.* HellIsThatNoise: [[invoked]] To the characters, the clanking footfalls of Palomides's armored division.* HeroAntagonist: Early on in the Standard History, Stocke gets sent to capture a man named Vlad who's part of a resistance movement in Alistel. Most of Vlad's comments about the government later turn out to be completely correct.* HeroicSacrifice: Several characters. [[spoiler:Including the BigBad!]]* HiddenAgendaVillain: [[spoiler:Heiss.]]* HiddenElfVillage: Celestia.* HisNameIs: [[spoiler:Mimel]] gets killed this way during Marco's sidequest if Stocke chooses not to turn them in. Necissary to avoid giving away the identity of the BigBad early.* HopelessBossFight: One sets off the whole story. If you do manage to win it (probably by hacking), you gain no EXP, no cash, and no items from it. You can return to Alistel, but the plot won't continue (since you're supposed to lose). If you walk back through the bridge, you can trigger the fight again. The only reward for winning the fight legitimately is bragging rights.** In the final dungeon, one of the last obstacles is the player being repeatedly sent back to various moments throughout the story for multiple boss fights, including the aforementioned HopelessBossFIght. This time it's quite beatable.* IAmWho: [[spoiler:Stocke. By whom I mean Prince Ernst of Granorg.]] He even uses his real name as a pseudonym at one point.* IdiosyncraticComboLevels* IHaveThisFriend: Raynie has a conversation of this sort with Stocke, but instead of substituting an unspecified person for herself, she refers to ''Stocke'' as "there's this guy".* ILetYouWin: After defeating Garland. Considering [[TurnsRed he uses a powerful buff spell at low health]], this is quite believable.* ImpossibleItemDrop: Frogs which drop swords are the most obvious type of offender.* ImprobableAge: The ages given for most of the player characters in [[AllThereInTheManual the artbook]] are distinctly on the low side. And Sonja is apparently the most skilled doctor the army has at ''eighteen''.* InevitableTournament: [[spoiler:Stocke is forced to take part in one to find his missing party members. Luckily for you, you don't have to go through the entire tournament, considering the last opponents are very difficult. But you do have to finish the tournament in order to finish a sidequest.]]* InexplicableTreasureChests: Normal treasure chests are one thing, but why would you go to the trouble of turning one invisible, then leave it lying around in the woods?* InfinityMinusOneSword: Historica.* InfinityPlusOneSword: True Historica.* InformedEquipment* InstantExpert: Stocke. Justified in some cases because of TimeTravel, but he does pick up the Vanish technique after just seeing it used a handful of times.* InterfaceSpoiler: There are many events that seem like sidequests at first glance, but are added to the Chronicle as main story events. If this happens, you know the [[ForWantOfANail seemingly minor action will be necessary to avoid a roadblock later on.]] Particularly notable with [[spoiler:saving the resistance members]] in standard history Chapter 3, as this won't become important until Chapter ''6''.* InterfaithSmoothie: The Gutrals, and Gafka's attacks, are themed around Shinto.* InterspeciesRomance: A sidequest has you playing matchmaker for a human and Satyros.* IrrelevantSidequest: Both played straight and averted; some of them are essential to get the better endings.* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: How Stocke gets the White Chronicle.* ItsAWonderfulFailure: Every choice (except the first, between soldier and spy) has one choice that lets you continue and another that leads to this.* ItsUpToYou: It's up to Stocke and his team to do anything worth doing in the world. Reinforced in that in the two realities, the one Stocke isn't involved in fails.** Given that as you progress through the game you consistently lead your allies through seemingly unbeatable odds, they probably realize that you always make the right call.* JungleJapes* KingMook: Palomides the Executioner.* KungFuProofMook: Some enemies, mainly underground ones, can't be pushed around.* LadyAndKnight: Eruca and Stocke have this dynamic. It even gets a LampshadeHanging from Rosch, though [[ClingyJealousGirl Aht does not approve]].* LaResistance* LanternJawOfJustice: Rosch is a borderline case.* LateCharacterSyndrome: Depending on the player, Eruca, Rosch, and/or Gafka ''may'' suffer from this. Lampshaded in Rosch's case by someone telling him he'll have to work twice as hard after his absence.* LazyBackup: The fate of the world is riding on your battles, but your backup still won't step up if you get wiped out.* LeakedExperience: Annoyingly, only if the character is available at the time. This tends to result in Rosch in particular having a bad case of CantCatchUp.* LeaveYourQuestTest: When Aht asks Stocke to quit fighting, his response amounts to, "What? No." When ''[[spoiler:Raynie]]'' asks, [[NonStandardGameOver he actually has to think about it]].* {{Leitmotif}}: "The Melody Connecting The Universe" is played in scenes related to Historia, the fate of the world and the desertification, and "Unending Clear Blue Sky" is Aht's character theme.* LifeEnergy: Mana. The desertification is caused by improper flow of Mana (called Flux).* ALighterShadeOfGray: Cygnus may be a rather brutal place that sees nothing wrong with slavery or solving every argument with a duel, but at least they're not an oppressive, corrupt dictatorship like Alistel or Granorg.* LimitBreak: Mana Bursts. Everyone can use "Turn Break" (an enemy turn is skipped) and also gets two unique attacks.* LimitedWardrobe: Nobody ever changes clothes except for the rare disguise.* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Physical attacks are next to useless in this game. It also helps that there are no such thing as elemental resistances or immunities in this game, only weaknesses. This makes the Mythril Edge, which is bought from a random merchant near the end of the game, more useful than the [[spoiler:[[InfinityPlusOneSword True Historica]], which you get after beating the toughest boss in the game]] due to its substantially higher Magic boost.* LongSongShortScene: The appropriately-titled "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhkHqTTYUVM Interrupted Moment]]", which plays over the bad end title cards. Unless you specifically stop to listen to it, you'll probably hear about three seconds of it, tops.* LostForever: There is exactly 1 missable fight in this game: [[spoiler:Hermit Pierre]]. If you [[spoiler:escort Claire out of the sewers]] in Standard History Chapter 2 before the event [[spoiler:where Pierre betrays you]], you've officially locked yourself out of this fight for the rest of that file. You can still get OneHundredPercentCompletion without it, though.* LoveRedeems: [[spoiler:Heiss, to an intense degree.]]* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Heiss is actually Stocke's uncle. The latter is also Eruca's brother.]]* MadScientist: Fennel.* {{Magitek}}: Thaumatech.* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: Due to the game's time travel mechanics, this will happen more than once.* ManaBurn: Called "Fear", it's one of the more painful status effects in the game. Losing Mana is much worse in the story.* MatchMakerQuest:** One involving [[spoiler:Rosch and Sonja]], and another involving [[spoiler:Liese and the captain of the Granorg guard]].** [[spoiler:And, technically, Raynie and Stocke, because it was only after his suggestion that Raynie realized she loves "this friend of hers".]]* {{Matriarchy}}: Granorg, of the Patriarchy Flip variety.* MeaningfulName: Judgement Cliff, retroactively. [[spoiler:It's where the "Divine Judgement" is stationed.]]* MessiahCreep: Stocke, to an incredible degree. [[spoiler:It's part of the Chronicle' ''[[InvokedTrope intended]]'' effects on his wielders to help them to naturally empathize with people of Vainqueur during their travels through time and prepare them to become the Sacrifices. It's as questionable as it sounds and the reason why King Victor's brother, the previous Sacrifice, [[RefusalOfTheCall refused to go along with]] [[HeroicSacrifice the ritual]], allowing the Desertification to run rampant by the time the game takes place.]]* MightyGlacier: Rosch and Gafka. Gafka borders on GlassCannon territory at times, as his magic defense is terrible.* MisappliedPhlebotinum: Both the White and the Black Chronicle. [[spoiler:Their intended purpose is to provide Sacrifice candidates with the experiences necessary to understand and embrace their duty. It's Heiss's meddling that leads to both books being used to alter history.]]* ModularEpilogue: The ending contains several scenes that must be unlocked by completing optional storylines. The GoldenEnding requires that you complete all the major ones. Ironically, the most important of all doesn't seem especially significant until you complete it; the fate of the world hinges on what appears at first to be a simple FetchQuest.* MoneySpider* MookPromotion: Raynie and Marco. They were originally going to be RedShirt allies to make the beginning of the game easier. Instead they stayed in and got some character development. And [[spoiler:Raynie got PromotedToLoveInterest.]]* MultipleEndings: Send the timeline into an unsustainable path, and you end up continuing from the beginning of that chapter. The final ending also has multiple permutations depending on which sidequests you cleared.* MundaneUtility: The Chronicles, books that allow the bearers to travel through time at will and rewrite history as they see fit were originally intended [[spoiler:to make their bearers wiser so that their sacrifices would have more of an effect]]. That's pretty damn important, but ''[[MisappliedPhlebotinum still]]''...** Stocke takes it even further by basically solving every problem he encounters with time travel, [[IrrelevantSidequest whether it's important or not]].* MusicalSpoiler: The boss fight against [[spoiler:Heiss]] uses the same music as the fights against [[spoiler:the Black Chronicle's wielder's minions]] do.* MyCountryRightOrWrong: [[spoiler:Rosch]], depending on time and timeline.* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Selvan and Dias to Protea. [[spoiler:Although, [[UnwittingPawn they only do so for her]] [[DragonWithAnAgenda downfall.]]]]** Viola also suffers this in a sense. [[spoiler:She recognizes Hugo as a ManipulativeBastard, but she stays loyal to Noah.]]* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Palomides the Executioner.* NewMeat: Kiel.* NietzscheWannabe: The BigBad.* NoExportForYou: Europeans are out of luck again. At least the DS is region free.* NoodleIncident: Marco mentions someone trying to make a move on Raynie and it ending violently.* NonActionGuy: Lt. General Raul. Failing to keep him off the front lines even nets a bad end at one point.* NonStandardGameOver: Stocke never actually dies in any of the game's bad endings, but triggering one will set you back a bit, forcing you to continue onward from the beginning of the respective chapter. But since you can get back to where you were just by skipping any cutscenes and going to the nearest save point, it barely even qualifies as [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist a slap on the wrist]].* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Subverted during the beginning sequence. After Stocke, severely injured, jumps off a bridge into a flooded river, Palomides says he almost certainly couldn't have survived... but then sends soldiers out to search the riverbanks anyway. (It ends up being a moot point due to time travel, though.)* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Both averted and played straight.* NoticeThis: Walking close to an invisible treasure chest, switch, or plot item once you get the Mana Sight ability is accompanied by a sound effect and a glow as it appears. This is particularly handy in the case of a couple of chests [[BehindTheBlack hidden in the shadows of walls]].* NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler:Heiss and Stocke. Stocke later understands Heiss's RefusalOfTheCall.]]* NowWhereWasIGoingAgain: May happen to players once the timeline(s) get more complicated, especially since much of the game involves replaying scenes they've played already with just a slight change.** Thankfully, the White Chronicle is accessible from the menu, and lists both timelines, their events, their branching paths, and even the effects your manipulation had on them.* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: Several; the game ''is'' about a war.* OfCorpseHesAlive: [[spoiler:When people start demanding a public appearance by Noah, Hugo attempts to cover up the fact that [[ElCidPloy he's been dead for some time]] by using a wooden dummy]]. This works about as well as you'd expect.* OffingTheOffspring: The late King Victor killed Ernst not only because [[spoiler:the original Sacrifice (Heiss) ran out on him]], but also because Ernst's altruistic endeavors were making Victor look bad. [[spoiler:Eruca was his first choice, but she "behaved."]]** Protea likes to threaten Eruca with what happened to her brother. She's also implied to have her assassinated in one bad ending.* OffTheRails: One of the false endings (The World's Betrayal) has Stocke join Granorg as an assassin, killing multiple important [=NPCs=], and Teo and Lippti comment that they never expected him to try such a thing.* OneSizeFitsAll: 9-year-old Aht and 19-year-old Stocke can wear the same armor, but [[JustifiedTrope the shared category is cloaks]], so it's not as ridiculous as it sounds. A more glaring example is between Stocke, Raynie, Marco, and Rosch, all of whom are very different in size.* OneWingedAngel: The FinalBoss.* OnlyOneMeAllowedRightNow: Due to the way the White Chronicle works, the Stocke appearing in a timeline is always the same and only one.* OnlyOneName: No one has both a first and a last name.* PaletteSwap: Enemies and some of the mini bosses.* PaperThinDisguise: Stocke, Gafka, and Aht all disguise themselves perfectly by wearing cloaks during chapter 3 of the Alternate History. Note that Gafka is a giant gorilla-man and Aht has large horns that are somehow perfectly concealed under the cloak's hood, but they're all represented by the same human-sized cloaked figure while in disguise. It's surprising, then, that another cloaked figure nicknamed "R" instantly recognizes Stocke despite the cloak shortly after that scene. As a [[LetsPlay LPer]] put it, "[[http://screencappery.livejournal.com/250304.html Congrats, dude. You're the only person in Alistel who can recognize the faces of people wearing hoods.]]"* PartyInMyPocket* PartyOfRepresentatives: Your party consists of four characters from Alistel, one from Granorg, a Satyros, and a Gutral. [[spoiler:Well, okay, ''two'' from Granorg, but who's counting?]]* PendulumWar* PerpetualExpression: The character portraits never change.* PlaceBeyondTime: Historia.* PointOfNoReturn: Completely averted: you can always go back, up to and even after killing the FinalBoss.** Though it is possible to lock yourself out of at least one fight (by saving Pierre's sister).* {{Precursors}}: The Empire, bordering on AbusivePrecursors.** Given [[spoiler:Teo and Lippti's]] pointy ears, they may have been be elf analogues.* PreexistingEncounters: May be annoyingly difficult to avoid before you gain the skill to turn yourself invisible to them, mainly because they move as fast as you do and whether or not you'll stun them by swinging your sword at them is entirely random: if they're not stunned, they're just knocked back slightly and continue running at you, barely giving you enough time to swing at them again. The invisibility skill saves much time near the end of the game when completing quests in early areas, where all the enemies do nothing more than slow you down.* ProudWarriorRace: The Gutrals.* QuestGiver: Given the number of sidequests, all over the place.* RealityBleed* ReassignedToAntarctica: What happened to General Viola pre-story when she got too popular. [[spoiler:General Hugo tries to do this to the Rosch Brigade as well, but it doesn't go as effectively as he hoped.]]* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: King Garland, Lt. General Raul, and General Viola [[spoiler:(that is, when the last of them isn't trying to pull off a ThanatosGambit)]].* RebelLeader: Eruca. It's... complicated.* RebelliousRebel: [[spoiler:Pierre.]]* RecurringBoss: Quite a number of them, actually.* RedBaron** Rosch and Stocke are known as the "Young Lions" of Alistel.** Field Marshal Viola is known as "The Valkyrie".** Raul is known as the "Sleeping Lion".** King Garland is called the "Desert Tiger".** Palomides, an officer of the Granorg army, is called "the Executioner".* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Heiss]]* RedOniBlueOni: All over the place- Raynie and Marco, Stocke and Rosch, Teo and Lippti, and Rosch and Raul. Though ironically, the pair who most fit the red/blue symbolism in terms of colors and ElementalPowers are ''both'' Blues: despite the [[RedIsHeroic red clothes]] and [[PlayingWithFire fire magic]], Stocke is if anything even calmer and more subdued than [[AnIcePerson ice-wielding]], [[TrueBlueFemininity blue-clothed]] Eruca, and the only thing that might qualify him as the Red of the two is a slight bias towards action and impulsivity. [[spoiler:Though from the sound of things, they used to be a rather straighter example.]]* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler:Heiss did this, and it's the cause of the Desertification increasing.]]* RestrainingBolt: One is placed on the White Chronicle itself, so Stocke can only alter history relative to his own decisions and experiences. Another is placed on the twins so they cannot interfere with history from within the Chronicle. [[spoiler:They later injure themselves trying to overcome it to give Stocke some direct hints.]]* TheReveal: Several times, of increasing levels of WhamEpisode-ness.* ReverseGrip: Will of LaResistance and ninja-esque mooks, crossed with DualWielding.* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: [[spoiler:Hedge, after he attempts to sell out King Garland to Granorg. You'll prevent this, though.]]* RingOutBoss: Some boss battles are best fought by knocking them onto trap tiles. Sometimes you must knock them ''off'' booster tiles as well.* RippleEffectProofMemory:** Not only does Stocke have it, he can also make the opinions and feelings of certain characters from one timeline bleed onto the other, or even ''backwards'' in time. The most notable examples are [[spoiler:curing Rosch's LawfulStupid and making Raynie and Marco's loyalty override their fear of betraying Heiss]].** Teo and Lippti appear to have this as well.* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler:Marco against the entire party in one of the bad endings.]]* RomanceSidequest: With [[spoiler:Raynie]], and its conditions are rather bizarre. [[spoiler:While she clearly has a {{tsundere}} crush on Stocke to start with, you have to make three specific dialogue choices, all of which are COMBAT related, to unlock the scene. This suddenly [[StrangledByTheRedString causes her to switch to full-on deredere, confess her love for Stocke]], and [[LoveMakesYouCrazy ask him to give up fighting to run off with her]]. She harbors and expresses these feelings [[TimeyWimeyBall before one those dialogue choices actually happens]], so apparently his ChronicHeroSyndrome is so severe it makes her fall for him ''retroactively''.]]* RoyallyScrewedUp: The Granorg kingdom.* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: King Garland, Eruca, before his death, Ernst, and [[FromACertainPointOfView depending on your definition]] [[spoiler:Stocke and Heiss. The former doesn't know he's royalty and the latter is trying to end the world, but they're royals and they are doing things]].* RunDontWalk: You must hold down B to walk.* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Kiel]], although it's fairly obvious he's being set up as one.* SavePoint: Apart from pre-existing save points, several will magically crop up at important moments in the plot.* SaveScumming: {{Invoked}} and used as a core mechanic. One major inspiration for the game was how everyone used to read ''ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' books with their fingers between the pages in case they [[HaveANiceDeath chose poorly.]]* SaveThePrincess: Eruca probably finds more ways to get herself killed/otherwise inconvenienced than any other character except Rosch, [[BadassPrincess badass]] though she is.* SavingTheWorld* SchizoTech: Only one human ally and no enemies use a gun (everyone else uses crossbows) and one kingdom has Magitech mechs [[spoiler:and teleporters]].* ScrewDestiny: ZigZagged. [[spoiler:Heiss defied his destiny to become a sacrifice to save the world and tried to help Stocke do the same; however, Stocke fought his plans at every turn, and eventually his conviction convinced Heiss that the future was worth saving, causing him to offer himself as the sacrifice in Stocke's stead.]]* SelfDisposingVillain: [[spoiler:Dias]] throws a knife at [[spoiler:Eruca]], and Stocke jumps in the way and lethally reflects it back to him with an extremely well-timed sword strike.* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Stocke and Rosch, respectively. Rosch even asks Stocke for relationship advice!* SequelHook: The ritual to stop desertification is nothing but a quick fix. This is not fixed in-game, leaving room for a sequel that puts an end to desertification once and for all. Lippti and Teo imply that [[spoiler:the scientist with two kids will be the one to do it]].* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The theme of the game.* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: Both Stocke and Eruca wind up having to explain that no, really, I know I keep staring at her/him, but it's not like ''that''. [[spoiler:Unusually for this trope, [[RelativeError this is actually completely true]].]]* ShoutOut:** [[Film/TheTerminator "Your clothes. Hand them over."]] (Stocke, before [[DressingAsTheEnemy mugging some soldiers for their uniforms]].)** In the Sand Fortress, a training soldier quotes the song "Break My Stride."** "The underground waterways [[VideoGame/ColossalCave are a maze of twisted passages, mostly alike.]]"** As Stocke meets the informant in Granorg, he simply greets him with [[MetalGearSolid "Kept you waiting, huh?"]]* SiblingTeam: [[spoiler:Stocke and Eruca.]]* {{Sidequest}}: Tons!* SkeletonGovernment: It's a real mystery how Granorg keeps going; Alistel at least has a few bureacrats.* SlidingScaleOfLinearityVsOpenness: Around a high 3; the storyline takes centre stage and progresses linearly, but there are a ''lot'' of sidequests, with backtracking openly encouraged.* SoHappyTogether: In one bad ending, Stocke [[spoiler:agrees to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere give up fighting to live with Raynie]] and seek a peaceful solution to the desertification. They admit to their relationship to Rosch and the others, and receive their congratulations. Although they are [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther truly happy together]], they watch the world slowly end in one year. Stocke uses the White Chronicle to get back to work, telling Raynie he can't give up, and making ThePromise]].* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: Sort of. It can happen; the game removes members from your party without warning often enough. But it isn't a big deal since you can time travel back to when they still were in the party, retrieve your stuff, and go back.* SophisticatedAsHell: Minor example.-->'''Garland''': Shackles can't bind the soul, or something like that.* SoundOfDarkness: The Black Chronicle's heartbeat noise* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Alternates between Stock/Stocke depending on the age of the promotional material. The Japanese "official" romanization was Stock, but Atlus USA chose to go with Stocke, so Stocke is his official English name. Same with Roche/Rosch.** There are, however, at least two instances of "Stock" that slipped into the final game.* SquishyWizard: Eruca. Aht starts out like this but gets better.* StationaryBoss: {{Giant Spider}}s and such.* StatisticallySpeaking: Stocke can't push things around until a certain event, regardless of how strong he is.* StockAesops: Both good and bad.** [[AndroclesLion Love the world or hate it, you'll get it back.]]** ThePowerOfFriendship[=/=]ThePowerOfLove: Stocke decides that [[spoiler:Heiss's RefusalOfTheCall was not out of selfishness, but sadness, because his CainAndAbel relationship with King Victor and isolated life led him to believe there was not one soul on earth he would be willing to be the Sacrifice for. In the GoldenEnding, he finds one person, [[ThickerThanWater his nephew Stocke,]] and he demands he be sacrificed so Stocke can rejoin the world and people that he loves so much]].*** [[spoiler:But then there's Stocke and Raynie, who decide to elope together, only to let the world end.]]** MiseryBuildsCharacter. Invoked by [[spoiler:Teo and Lippti upon whomever wields a Chronicle. It DID NOT work on Heiss]].*** Except [[spoiler:[[FridgeBrilliance It did.]] See ThePowerOfFriendship directly above.]]* StreetPerformer: Vanoss and his troupe.* StrongFleshWeakSteel: By the endgame, you'll tear Thaumachines to pieces.* SurvivorsGuilt: [[spoiler:Rosch]] is hit by a case of this after the loss of [[spoiler:his brigade]]. He partially gets over it eventually though.** Marco and Raynie have this early in the game, but it gets dropped pretty quickly. It's also hinted that Stocke has some, but the game never goes into detail about it. [[spoiler:Eruca also feels some, considering that she was originally going to be the sacrifice, but her brother was picked instead, simply because she wasn't openly rebellious.]]* SwordAndSorcerer: A part of the game where you have only Stocke and Aht in your party.** Raynie and Marco. She [[LadyOfBlackMagic blasts things]], Marco makes sure they're in the right place to be blasted and heals.* TakeYourTime: You can choose to do all your sidequests right before the final battle. Go ahead, the BigBad will wait. {{Justified|Trope}} for once, since you are using time travel, so you'll return to the final dungeon at the same moment of time you left it.** However, it doesn't explain how you can spend night after night at the [[TraumaInn inn]] while the city outside is in total chaos. Even more absurdly, at one point it's possible to stay in a city's inn ''while the city's on fire''. It gets Lampshaded if you do, but you suffer no reprecussions at all.* TargetedHumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The ritual requires the caster to use part of their soul to temporarily resurrect someone who died, then use that person as a reserve of SoulPower to fuel the ritual itself. Since there's not exactly a lot of recently-deceased people in the family who Eruca could resurrect, that just leaves two: Stocke and Heiss. And considering that the former is a MessianicArchetype, the latter is the BigBad, and the sacrifice has to be [[HeroicSacrifice willing]] to work...]]* TarotMotifs: The disciples of the world's greatest martial artist are Chalice, Wand, Pentacle, and Sword. Considering this, it's probably not coincidental that part of the sidequest they're involved in uses a sun as Eruca's symbol and a star as Aht's. [[spoiler:Or that one of Stocke's Skill Pacts is called the ''Death'' Pact]].* TeleportSpam: [[spoiler:Heiss]] likes to do this, though you later learn it's just {{invisibility}}.* TempleOfDoom* TemporalParadox: Occasionally pops up.* TemptingFate: After getting the [[MacGuffin Beast Mark]], Raynie says that no one is injured. Cue the GiantSpider.* TerminatorTwosome: The two Chronicle wielders are basically pulling a {{chessmaster}} variant of this. There's also a more standard use later, when [[spoiler:Heiss tries to skip back in time to kill Eruca before she and Stocke can meet, only for Stocke to go to the same point in time and fight him off]].* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Field Marshal Viola]] tries to pull one, for various reasons. [[spoiler:The key word here is "try," because she ends up surviving if you've completed her sidequest.]]* ThemeNaming: Most of the battle themes' titles involve colors. ''Blue Radiance'' is the standard battle theme, ''The Edge of Green'' and ''The Red Locus'' are boss themes, and ''An Earnest Desire of Grey'' is the final boss theme.** There are quite a few characters named after plants and flowers, with Stocke (named for a type of night-blooming flower), Eruca (named for the scientific name of a type of ''salad green'', the poor girl), Viola, and Garland being some of the more obvious ones.* ThereAreNoTents: Except in a cutscene. However, you can use mana crystals to heal at {{Save Point}}s, but since they're in limited availability and are ridiculously expensive, you're much better off just travelling to a node near to an inn and using that.* ThrivingGhostTown: Cornet Village has around ten citizens.* TimeTravel: One of the central themes.* TimeyWimeyBall: Oh god, yes. Stocke's actions will affect ''all'' timelines, even after they have diverged. Not to mention the fact that there are a total of 236 events to record.* TitleThemeDrop: The title screen music plays during a few cutscenes.* TooAwesomeToUse: Certain very rare items that make the whole party invulnerable for a few turns. Certain sidequests will all but force you to use them, though. However, you have absolutely no excuse for not using them during the final battle, since they get returned to you even after you save the clear file.* TooManyBelts: Pretty much everyone. Stocke, Raynie, and Kiel are the worst offenders.* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: The beginning of the game and several bad ends.* TraumaInn* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler:Basically anyone in authority except Raul and Viola.]]* TrickedOutTime: In the GoldenEnding, [[spoiler:Stocke goes back in time and saves Kiel and the rest of the Rosch brigade, but manages to keep them stuck in Granorg long enough that everyone thinks they're dead.]]* TrueCompanions: Stocke, Rosch, and Sonja are this before the story starts; Raynie notes how close they are and wonders if she could form a bond like that. [[spoiler:[[EveryoneCanSeeIt But Marco knows what's up.]]]]* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Stocke, Marco and Raynie could be this, except Marco seems more brotherly to Raynie than anything.** Alternately, Stocke, Rosch and Sonja. In one SideQuest, [[spoiler:when Stocke confronts Rosch about his feelings, Sonja overhears and runs off. If Stocke goes to comfort her, it's a BadEnd. If Stocke pushes Rosch to chase after her, though, the two hook up.]]* UndergroundLevel: Alma Mine.* UnderratedAndOverleveled: The most [[GameBreaker game-breaking]] party member is... [[TokenMiniMoe the nine-year-old girl]].* TheUnfought: [[spoiler:Selvan and Protea are never fought, which makes sense since they're non-combatants, but Dias -- supposedly a master swordsman, and one of the chief villains for large parts of the game -- being a CutsceneBoss is rather egregious. And even as a CutsceneBoss, you only encounter him in one bad ending.]]* UniversalPoison: To a degree where the solution to prevent a NPC from dying of illness is to give him an Anti-Poison.* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Protea to Dias and Selvan, most of Alistel's population to Hugo]]. However, all of the above are this to [[spoiler:Heiss]].* UrbanWarfare: Happens more than once.* UriahGambit: Attempted in the Alternate History timeline. [[spoiler:Hugo conspires to get Rosch's squad killed by leaking their position to the enemy. It ''works'' until Stocke goes back in time to prevent it, and even then he can't get anyone but Rosch and himself out alive.]]* UselessUsefulSpell: Averted: spells like Poison and Sleep work on enemies and even bosses more often than not.* UselessUsefulStealth: Stocke gets the ability to turn invisible partway through the game. Sometimes this works for the whole party, sometimes it doesn't (or he just [[ForgotICouldFly forgets to use it]]), and of course he never goes back and redoes past events where the ability would have been useful if he'd had it then. (It's somewhat justified when he's [[spoiler:trying to get Raul out of Alistel]], though. The soldiers that do detect him aren't exactly normal...)* ViciousCycle: The Granorg Royal Family regularly needs to [[spoiler:carry out a certain "ceremony" to keep the world from turning into sand. Neither of the game endings do anything to change this, but two of the epilogue scenes might show results]].* VideoGameStealing: Aht and Stocke are your battle kleptomaniacs. Most enemies have two items to steal, one common and one rarer. They usually won't drop them if you don't steal them.* VillainExitStageLeft: There's a mysterious person under the control of the Black Chronicle who shows up a few times, summons Shadows for a miniboss fight, then disappears. [[spoiler:While you eventually learn his identity, you never fight him]]. This also happens once when [[spoiler:Palomides]] pulls a YouShallNotPass to let [[spoiler:High Colonel Dias]] escape, only for [[LazyBackup your two inactive party members]] and Garland to do absolutely squat to stop the latter while you're busy fighting the former.* VillainousFriendship: Dias and Selvan are best friends.* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler:Hugo.]]* VisualInitiativeQueue* WalkingShirtlessScene: Vanoss, though it can be hard to tell from his sprite.* WarWasBeginning* WhamEpisode: Alternate History Chapter 2 is the first major one. [[spoiler:The Rosch Brigade is wiped out, and even with time travel you can only save him. Keil sacrifices himself to buy time, and unlike all other character deaths up to this point, this one is ''not'' preventable. Stocke goes into a HeroicBSOD over it, and ''then'' you learn that the intel resulting in the massacre was leaked by someone on ''your side'', specifically, General Hugo. [[YouCantGoHomeAgain Stocke has to flee Alistel with Rosch, with the entire army becoming his enemy.]]]] Ouch.* WhamLine:** ''At Journey's End'' ending:--->'''Raynie:''' [[spoiler:Maybe I've been fooling myself this whole time. I guess that just won't do, will it? [[StrangledByTheRedString I admit it, Stocke. I love you.]]]]\\'''Stocke:''' [[spoiler:''[Shocked]'' I...I thought we were talking about [[IHaveThisFriend this guy you knew...]]]]** Also, until it gets explained a bit more:--->'''Aht''': I have to take people who are done on earth to the heavens. It's my job.** And shortly before that, one that does ''not'' get explained for a very long time:--->'''Aht:''' Besides... Only you can meet God anyways.** And a double one:--->'''Eruca:''' It's not that he intended to neglect his duty to perform it, but even if he wanted to, he couldn't. [[spoiler:The [[TargetedHumanSacrifice sacrifice]] necessary for the ritual [[RefusalOfTheCall refused to do his duty]], and [[ChekhovMIA escaped]]...]]* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In terms of the Standard History, the fates of [[spoiler:Hugo]] and [[spoiler:Fennel]] are left unanswered, but it's possible that the whole "echo effect" between timelines had done its job; they probably suffered a similar fate to their Alternate History counterparts, but the writers either didn't have time or didn't consider it necessary to put in at that point. The fate of [[spoiler:King Victor]] is a smidge more annoying to leave hanging; after fighting you in the Imperial Ruins, he retreats through a doorway, his identity is finally revealed... and he's never mentioned again!* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: [[spoiler:Hugo.]]* TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed: Ever since the ancient empire screwed up the world's Mana, the continent has been in constant danger of turning into a desert.* WorstAid: One of the best healing items is called [[{{Squick}} Tourniquet (which "stings like crazy when applied")]].* YouAllLookFamiliar: Particularly bad with the soldiers, since you're never sure whether you're supposed to be fighting them or not.** Even more ridiculous with the "Thaumachines End" sidequest. It involves rescuing a man who was heavily experimented on, and outfitted with a thaumachine body as a makeshift gauntlet. But when you finally destroy the armor to reveal the tortued man within all you see is... '''the standard soldier sprite!'''* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:You're a wanted man!]] You do still wind up waltzing back in for reconnaissance purposes once, though, and of course the time-travel premise means you can step back to when you were allowed there whenever you want if you forgot something.* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness* YouShallNotPass: Done several times, by different characters:** [[spoiler:Raynie and Marco do this for Stocke once. They succeed and reunite later.]]** One of the "bad endings" has Stocke do this for Raynie and Marco, serving [[WeNeedADistraction as a distraction]] so they can complete the mission on their own. This being a bad ending, he gets out, but they don't.** [[spoiler:Kiel acts as a decoy so Stocke and Rosch can escape the ambush that destroyed the rest of the Rosch Brigade... and [[NeverFoundTheBody never comes back]].]]** Otto, a Resistance member, does this for Princess Eruca and the rest of the party. Later in the game, you will be given the means to ensure that Will, another Resistance member, will be able to assist him, allowing them both to survive.* YoungerThanTheyLook: [[spoiler:Heiss.]] Justified since [[spoiler:using the Black Chronicle caused him to age a lot more than he should have]]. Also, according to official material, Rosch is only 21.* ZeroEffortBoss: Subverted in the boss fight against [[spoiler:Alternate History Rosch]]. At first, his attacks never reduce you below 1 HP... then, after some dialogue, they do.** Also subverted with the boss of the Holff Ruins. After making your way through, you expect a tough fight against the "guardian" as your final test to claim the Beast Mark. You enter the boss room and fight... a single, Black Chronicle-infused Gutral, who doesn't put up much of a fight. But right ''afterwards'', you're thrown into a much tougher fight with a GiantSpider, without a free heal.** And [[spoiler:Hugo]]. That is, until you get the InfinityMinusOneSword. Then he actually puts up a fight.----